Ninety-three high school golfers will play a practice round this afternoon at Alvamar Country Club and then assemble for a banquet on the eve of the 6A state tournament.

Head pro Randy Towner will tell the players that somebody is going to finish first, somebody’s going to finish last, and 10 years from now it’s not really going to make a great deal of difference in either of their lives. His message: Enjoy the journey and don’t get wrapped up in the result.

Easy for him to say. He’s not the one who’s going to card a double-digit score on No. 12, a blind-drive hole known to freak out players unfamiliar with the quirky course that features tight fairways, and on a long day, can seem as if it has more dog legs than the Iditarod.

“We have two really hard holes,” Towner said. “You just never know which two.”

The always well-groomed course featuring zoysia fairways and big-breaking greens generally is not favored by those who mash their tee shots. The layout largely diminishes their advantage in that area.

Any high school golfer who aims to impress his girlfriend Monday by crushing the long ball would fare better aiming to safe landing spots. Golfers who decide that the tight layout and multiple dog legs make Alvamar private an unfair course are defeated before they play a shot.

Salina native Bryan Norton, who now lives in Mission Hills, showed one way to tame the temperamental track when he shot a 1-under par 71 to earn the day’s lone qualifying spot for the U.S. Senior Open last July. Norton used a wood just once, when he pulled his driver out of his bag on par-5 No. 17.

“It was about the only hole where I thought even if I don’t hit it straight, I can find it,” Norton said afterward. “On the other holes, it’s either you hit it where you’re supposed to or you’re re-teeing it.”

Once the competition begins, players won’t be able to pick Towner’s brain for local knowledge. They can do so at today’s banquet.

“I would tell them you need to find out how far 150 yards out is and try to get it to that spot with whatever instrument it takes,” Towner said. “Attack none of the par 5s. If you get in trouble, pitch it out and try to get it on from there.”

Towner said one Alvamar CC member will play with each group, imparting local knowledge to aid the young golfers’ preparation. When possible, members will be grouped with players from their hometowns.

Four of the golfers who qualified Monday are from city high schools: Jon Cohen and Alex Thompson of Lawrence High and Connor Klutman and Evan Schmidt from Free State. Towner said one reason Alvamar applied to be the host course was so that Cohen, an Alvamar member, could play for the state title at his home course as a senior.

“We’re basically doing this in his honor,” Towner said. “We’re very excited that he made it.”

Asked to rattle off the celebrities who have played the course, Towner said, “Michael Jordan, (Mikhail) Baryshnikov, Neil Armstrong.”

Pause.

“Let’s see,” Towner continued, “I’m trying to think of who else we’ve had out here who was the first man to walk on the moon and all I keep coming up with is Neil Armstrong.”